“Code it, girl!” is creating a pool of to-be female programmers
By Sushmita Saha
Females in our society have long been putting up with asinine social remarks –“Mathematics, Engineering are not women’s cup of tea” which impugn their analytic aptitude. Things have, albeit, taken a positive turn in the course of time; many sectors are still experiencing dearth of women participation. Computer science, for instance, is a substantial field of study with brilliant opportunities; however, the percentage of female participation in this field is considerably low in Bangladesh if compared to that of others. “Even if they select it as their under graduation discipline, most of them are not likely to set foot in the job field.” says Afreen Hossain, a current employee of the gaming giant EA Sports and one of the co-founders of the online community ‘Code It, girl!’.
Afreen Hossain came up with a phenomenal idea of creating an online platform for the girls where they can access to easy, free, online Bengali and English tutorials, blogs and books related to programming. The idea took shape when she shared it with her former colleagues and friend-Rezvi B. Islam who is currently a software tester and quality assurance engineer at Vantage Labs and Mirfat Sharmin, a computer science and Engineering graduate from BUET, who is currently working in an IT firm. Henceforth, they have been making headway to build up this online community with the common goal of enlightening a chunk of female population with the nuts and bolts of programming which will eventually land them in the IT industry.
“Code it, girl!” is a dedicated non-profitable, voluntary group which is bent on creating an appetite for coding in women through online tutorials. Since they target the women from different corners of Bangladesh, the contents of the tutorials are typically prepared in Bangla.
It is an interactive platform where the learners detects and hone their programming skill, the instructors constantly encourage the learners to discuss their areas of difficulties .
The primary target group of this platform are students in high schools, colleges and universities who are not aware of the programming arena or who take a keen interest in programming but are in dire need of guidance. “The practice of programming requires deep concentration and focus. Therefore, this language should be learned at an early age to have a firm grip on the topic in question.” Afreen highlights the importance of learning coding at an early age.
Code It, girl!, in essence, is a complete package that makes the females conversant with the relevant job market and stimulates their desire to achieve expertise on coding by sharing success stories of female coders across the globe with them, besides educating them about programming.
Putting the job market in the picture, Afreen and Mifrat enlightened that there is a good number of software companies in Bangladesh and they are doing brilliant projects, for instance, developing mobile games for official Marvel Avengers (Ironman, Hulk, Thor etc.) for both iOS and Android users. “Moreover, the IT industry is comparatively a lot more flexible than any other field for the facility to work from home and flexible office timing, which makes the field suitable for women, especially mothers.” says Mifrat.
However, it is equally important for a person, be it a he or she, to be adept at coding to bag a good opportunity and that is what “Code It, girl!” aims to accomplish for the aspirant female programmers.
The platform has not only confined its activities to electronic media, but also has arranged two workshops till date. The first one was conducted at the premises of Daffodil International University on January 17 this year. 43 girls from 23 different schools, colleges have participated in the workshop and they were enlightened with the practical knowledge of the use and application of “Python”- a programming language. Alongside, the workshop provided them with the basics of the computer operating system Linux.
The workshop was sponsored by Sir Fazle Hassan Abed in the name of Hafiza Khatun Memorial Trust and arranged and executed by Dimik Computing School. “Creating a programming-educated nation has been my long cherished dream. I observed some ardent girls taking special interest on programming language at the workshop.” says Tamim Shahriar Subeen, the author of the best-seller programming book named ‘Computer Programming-Part I’, the co-founder of Dimik Computing School and a mentor of “Code It, girl!” since scratch.
Shamsun Nahar Leepi, a student of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at Daffodil International University and an attendant of the workshop, wished she could learn programming at school. The workshop guided her with necessary directions for her future endeavor to step into the realm of IT industry.
The second workshop was conducted on February 20 this year at the Dhanmondi campus of Eastern University with participation of a group of 42 students coming from 20 different institutions. It was sponsored by an online community “Living on Codes” and focused on web concepts, designing a static website using HTML and CSS and creating a dynamic website using JavaScript. “We all should join our hands together for the group to reach wider mass and inspire many more to become a part of the amazing world of information technology.” says Mozammel Haque, a computer science graduate from University of Windsor, Canada and the instructor of this workshop.
The learners of this online community have different goals of their own. When Leepi wants to be an IT professional; Shahrin Rukaiya, a current student of Department of Physics at Comilla University, learns coding so that she can educate others with the knowledge of coding. Another learner, Shiddika Jahan Bushra who was an H.S.C candidate this year, wants to hone her programming skill and participate at the international programming contests.
As no initiative is devoid of impediments, one of the hindrances of this initiative is the shyness of the girls to ask questions when they stumble. “The participation of the girls has not yet been up to the mark. Parents should motivate their daughters to start learning programming at an early age (i.e. class 6) for them to achieve expertise on the area later on.” explains Subeen.
However, Subeen has a positive view for this initiative since, according to him, it has every potential to fulfill the goal it started with.
In the middle of violence, restiveness and narcissism; such initiatives undertaken by the youth of Bangladesh set the perfect example development, accountability and altruism. So, keep an eye on them. Who knows Bangladesh might get one of the best female coders of the world down the road hailing from this community!
